News roundup, 4 Sept 2026

- The UN has concluded that climate change has progressed far enough that an overshoot of the 1.5°C limit is inevitable and that people and societies will need to adapt to a hungrier and more dangerous world. Perhaps it's time to retire Rosemary Brown's remark that "until all of us have made it, none of us have made it", since it's pretty much certain now that not everyone's going to make it. Meanwhile the UK's National Audit Office says that the country has not done enough to prepare for possible food insecurity.

- Severe storms hit southern Ontario on Wednesday, with parts of Toronto getting as much rain as they would get in a typical month.

- An admiral in the US navy was asked at a press conference whether he would obey orders to attack Canada. He was quick to dismiss the question as "needlessly emotional" but went on to say that he would follow direction from his commander-in-chief.

- AI will be banned in New York City public schools from kindergarten to grade 8 for at least the next year. The impact of the ban will be studied afterwards, and it may be extended indefinitely if warranted.

- Three Ontario constituencies held byelections yesterday. Ford's PCs won two of the three, while the NDP took Scarborough Southwest. 

- The far-right AfD has the potential to win a majority in the German state of Saxony-Anhalt when that state's voters go to the polls on Sunday.

- Australia is pulling researchers from its base in Macquarie Island so that they don't have to witness a mass dieoff of elephant seals. The dieoff is anticipated due to the arrival of bird flu on the island, and the government is concerned about the psychological impact on the researchers.

Teabaggers -- the paranoia continues

Exhibit A is Dan Maes, who hopes to be governor of Colorado. He thinks bike share programs are a UN plot:

Republican gubernatorial candidate Dan Maes is warning voters that Denver Mayor John Hickenlooper's policies, particularly his efforts to boost bike riding, are "converting Denver into a United Nations community."

"This is all very well-disguised, but it will be exposed," Maes told about 50 supporters who showed up at a campaign rally last week in Centennial.

Maes said in a later interview that he once thought the mayor's efforts to promote cycling and other environmental initiatives were harmless and well-meaning. Now he realizes "that's exactly the attitude they want you to have."

"This is bigger than it looks like on the surface, and it could threaten our personal freedoms," Maes said.

He added: "These aren't just warm, fuzzy ideas from the mayor. These are very specific strategies that are dictated to us by this United Nations program that mayors have signed on to."

From the Denver Post. Happily, virtually every comment that I read on that story thought Maes' position to be ridiculous.

Exhibit B is an organization called the Family Research Council (and yes, this is one book that you can judge by its cover). Not surprisingly, they aren't at all happy to hear that their beloved Proposition 8 runs afoul of their supposedly even more beloved Constitution. As Ken at Popehat points out, the judge in the case, Vaughn Walker, is a longtime Republican, appointed by Reagan against the will of liberal Democrats. So when he doesn't do what conservatives think he should do, they have a novel explanation:

It turns out that the Judge behind Proposition 8′s undoing was just biding his time until he could unleash his ultimate agenda: decimating marriages that have defined civilization since the beginning of time.

Straight from the horse's mouth, via the above linked Popehat post. A sinister sleeper agent, presumably put there by Satan, the Communists, the Freemasons, the Elders of Zion, lizards from outer space, or some combination thereof, for the sole purpose of destroying the institution of marriage. I guess it makes sense to somebody...

Saudi Arabia fears reduced oil revenue, wants compensation

This takes a certain amount of chutzpah; they figure they're entitled to compensation for any possible drop in oil consumption obtained by those nasty environmentalists:

Saudi Arabia, which has the world's largest oil reserves and earned nearly $300bn in fossil fuel exports last year, will seek financial compensation for any loss it incurs if and when production declines after a new climate change agreement is reached.

The move, which was confirmed by UN officials at the UN climate talks in Bonn this week, matches demands made by the world's poorest countries for money to adapt to climate change.

Saudi Arabia and some other Opec oil-producing countries claim that they will have to adapt their economies to a world which uses less oil and say they could lose as much as $19bn a year if countries are forced to cut fossil fuel use. Their argument is that they have only oil and sand as resources and it would be unfair to penalise them. Saudi Arabia first raised the idea of compensation for lost oil revenues at climate talks in Bangkok last year, in the run-up to the Copenhagen climate summit.

From the Guardian. Perhaps the UN should suggest that they spend some of the wealth they've accumulated from oil on solar panels; that ought to provide them with a decent amount of revenue (they do get rather a lot of sunshine, after all). They could probably supply the entire Middle East and Central Asia with electricity if they did that. Failing that, maybe the world should just tell King Abdullah to rub salt in his arse.

Speaking of water...

The UN General Assembly is expected to vote shortly on a resolution declaring water to be a basic human right. Sounds like a good idea, no? However, the usual suspects would disagree:

Barlow, former senior adviser on water at the UN and chair of the Council of Canadians citizens group, is optimistic the resolution will pass by majority vote.

However, it appears powerful nations — including Canada — either will not support it or will push for a version that Barlow says would continue to allow water to be bought and sold as a commodity.

“My fear is that the world is going to be divided into North and South — developed and developing nations — and that’s a disaster for the United Nations and for the world,” said Barlow. She was referring to apparent behind-the-scenes opposition by the U.S., Australia, New Zealand and Britain and other European countries, as well as Canada.

Now why would this be? Dunno; perhaps some people fear it would limit their ability to sell stuff like this?

Help democratize the UN!

I usually don't waste my time for online petitions, but I really like this idea:

Humanity faces the task of ensuring the survival and well being of future generations as well as the preservation of the natural foundations of life on Earth. We are convinced that in order to cope with major challenges such as social disparity, proliferation of weapons of mass destruction, the threat of terrorism or the endangerment of global ecosystems, all human beings must engage in collaborative efforts.

To ensure international cooperation, secure the acceptance and to enhance the legitimacy of the United Nations and strengthen its capacity to act, people must be more effectively and directly included into the activities of the United Nations and its international organizations. They must be allowed to participate better in the UN’s activities. We therefore recommend a gradual implementation of democratic participation and representation on the global level.

We conceive the establishment of a consultative Parliamentary Assembly at the United Nations as an indispensable step. Without making a change of the UN Charter necessary in the first step, a crucial link between the UN, the organizations of the UN system, the governments, national parliaments and civil society can be achieved through such an assembly.

Via babble.